No matter what what industry you belong to, providing high-quality information to your site readers is vitally important. For example, if your business provides health-related services, it’s a good idea to include useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it takes a great deal of work and resources. You have to sort through, research, and organize a lot of data, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
Some Basic Information About RSS
- RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news, audios, etc., which users can choose to subscribe to.
- You can view the content of an RSS feed using a software program called a feedreader, or feed aggregator. Aggregators can be used to find content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to other online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feed readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates from different sources.
This detailed guide shows you where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used to share content online. Feeds provide a way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Online media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news from content sources around the world.
Syndication allows most online newspapers and popular media publications to deliver readers global stories and up-to-the-minute newsworthy items from all over the planet without actually having to employ and post additional writers to every place around the world …
(Most digital agencies use syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies around the world.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. online media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies and major sites contain an RSS feed section (look for links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most news reporting agencies and leading online media publications have a feed section. Image: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of different RSS feeds of the site …
(A website’s directory of feeds. Image: nytimes.com)
These feed items give you access to different areas of the site (e.g. business news, entertainment news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
A feed directory can also contain further subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. All that’s required to use the feed is copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
RSS Feeds – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(The Benefits Of Using Feeds)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other sites to syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on the sidebar menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some sites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Subscribe, or Share section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Share, or Follow toolbar)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(RSS content viewed using Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS content displayed with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many posts you want to display in your RSS page in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)
The feed will show the number of items you have specified section …
(The feed will display as many recent posts as you have specified in your Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds appear)
To learn more about using WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for an RSS feed icon. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other site’s RSS feeds to yours.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed from a site that publishes content that you would like to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted – e.g. custom menu) …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar Menu)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
How To Add A Feed To Your Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post instead of your sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are some plugins you can check out that let you add RSS feeds to your posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is an advanced importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of every item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed lets you combine and display content from various content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any phone, tablet, or computer and supports text in every language.
The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress.
As stated in the FeedWordPress site …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine posts from different sources), or display all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages plugin to include pages in your RSS feed and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
You can access these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries seen using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content as seen using a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader.com)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WordPress site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying RSS Feeds For Specific Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for an individual post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS directories, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for displaying an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:
(Single Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content about specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WordPress category feed)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your category link address …)
And append “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
Your category RSS feed now only includes content assigned to this category …
(Category RSS feed page)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Provide An RSS Feeds Page
You can publish a feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific categories, just like large websites …
(Provide An RSS Feeds Directory)
Link an RSS button image like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress posts and pages here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed types without messing with code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can use …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed containing the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that includes the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/10/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/07/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feeds. Place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button somewhere visible …
(Encourage your visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other users to share your content using WordPress and RSS!)
If you need help coming up with content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- Feed Buttons – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation and reference. Go here for more information about WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To read more about using the WordPress web content management platform please see our related posts section.
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